The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

and made the fundamental law of Massachusetts in
1780, was equality before the law. Its object was to
efface all political or civil distinctions, and to
abolish all institutions founded upon birth. ‘All
men are created equal,’ says the Declaration of
Independence. ‘All men are born free and equal,’
says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are
not vain words. Within the sphere of their
influence, no person can be created, no person can
be born, with civil or political privileges not
enjoyed equally by all his fellow citizens; nor can
any institutions be established, recognizing
distinctions of birth. Here is the great charter of
every human being drawing vital breath upon this
soil, whatever may be his conditions, and whoever
may be his parents. He may be poor, weak,
humble, or black; he may be of Caucasian, Jewish,
Indian, or Ethiopian race; he may be born of
French, German, English, or Irish extraction; but
before the constitution of Massachusetts all these
distinctions disappear. He is not poor, weak,
humble, or black; nor is he Caucasian, Jew, Indian,
or Ethiopian; nor is he French, German, English, or
Irish; he is a man, the equal of all his fellow-men....
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